Cotton cleaner



2 sheets..-"sheet x N. B. HENRY coTToN CLEANER Filed Nov. 11

Jan. l, 1924 Jan. l, 1924 1,479,503 A v N. B. HENRY COTTON CLEANER FiledNov. l1. 1G22 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Jan. l, 1924.

UNITED A.ST'FES masts rarest orme-s.

NELSON B. HENRY, or ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AssreNon To Tnn MURRAY COMPANY, F

DALLAS, TEXAS, A conroaATroN or TEXAS.

COTTON CLEANER.

Application filed November 11, 1922. Serial No. 600,297.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, NELSON B. HENRY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Atlanta, in the county of Fulton and State of 1.5 trash,which owing to the compression to which the cotton mass has beensubjected in the baling process has become very intimately embedded andentangled in and among the fibers of the cotton, so that its removal Vis difficult and commonly not thoroughly performed, the cotton itselfbeing so compressed and compacted as to be matted and solid, the airhaving been largely expressed and evacuated from the cotton mass.

It is an object of my invention to thoroughly open aerate and clean suchlow grade cotton and to that end to give the maximum screening to it,possible in a machine of a given size; to open the cotton by theinteraction of beater arms, screens and air currents and to thoroughlyaerate the cotton by pneumatically carrying it through a suitablydesigned chamber in a cyclonic path, separating the fibers as much asmay be by the Cyclonic air currents whirling within the chamber inconnection with the other elements.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows, in diagrammatic form, a typical installation of mycleaner-aerator;

Figure 2 is an elevation of the cleaner chamber mainly in longitudinalsection.

Figure 3 is a cross-section on line 3--3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a plan View of the chamber of Figure 2 the interior partsindicated in dotted lines.

Figure 5 is a cross-section on line 5-5 of Fi re 4 s indicateddiagrammatically in Figure 1, the air current employed in my cottoncleaner-aerator is induced by a fan A, which sucks cotton through a pipeB, from the bale opener C to and through the cyclone Vthe outer casing 1and'its open end is concleaner chamber and from the chamber by 'a pipe Bto the suction side of vthe fan, throughV which the cotton passes and isthen discharged with the air blast through a pipe B2 preferably to acondenser D, where the cotton fibers are separated from the air, forminga light bat on the condenser surfaces, ready for further operations inthe mill. The bale opener, pneumatic pipes, fan and condenser are allwell known instrumentalities in the art which require no explanation asto their mechanism, beyond the dia- Egrammaticl showing of theorganization of 'these elements, made in Figure 1.

The gist of my new invention lies in the new cleaner and in theorganization of the old elements with this new cleaner, to obtain thedesired mode of operationand results.

The cleaner'is made up of an air tight outer casing,'1, within which isa curved wire mesh surface 2, extending longitudinally thereof. ln thecentral, longitudinal axis of the casing and curved screen is mountedfor rotation a shaft 3 driven by a pulley 31 and carrying beater arms 4,the free ends 41 of'which are set at an angle, tending to move thecotton in a spiral path from the inlet end to the outlet end of thecleaner. At one end of the cleaner, pipe B passes through ensl nectedtoV a corresponding opening in the curved screen 2 (see Figs. 2, 3 and5). The point of entry of pipe Bis at one end of vthe casin'g, soldirected that the air current moving into the casing through pipe B istangential to the path of the beater arms 4 and in the same direction asthe motion of the beater arms. The incoming air cur-v rent moves in aspiral path within the casing, gradually circling to the exit end of thecasing and during its course it carries a load of cotton which is at thesame time thrownV by the arms against the screen and back into the airstream, the ends, 41, of the arms 4, which are at an angle to the axisof the machine, aiding in urging the cotton around and lengthwise of thescreens and chamber simultaneously.

It is to be observed that the air in pipe B, the cleaner and pipe B isunder tension, and the tension is practically uniform from end to end ofthe system, and the air stream, upon entering the cleaner docs notspread as would be the case if the stream were under compressiond Thisis advantageous as the Y tributed, carried and sustained, tor the bet-Cil ter breaking up ci" mats into iibrous term, the cotton, as it comesfrom the bale opener and enters the cleaner', being in units yofaggregated ibers. The course ont the air stream and cotton covers thescreen from end to end ot the cleaner, whereas in other cleaners, inwhich the cotton entered at the top rside of ther casing, above thebeater shaft and in a direction longitudinal oithe cleaner and acrossthe path ot the beater arms and Was directed to the exit at the otherend, the cotton was carried along the cleaner so that thescreens at the.bottom at the incoming end were not covered or utilized. Furthermore thebeater arms moving across the path ot the air current broke anddestroyed it so that its load Was deposited on the screens and theprocess became purely -a screening process, as distinct from the beatingof airsustained cotton and cleaning and aerating process abovedescribed, in which n ats and bats are beaten in air into theirconstituent iibers, as Well as subjected to screen action when they tallupon the screens.

. in previous cleaners, in which seed cotton Was operated upon, in itspath to the gins, the suction was cut ed from vtime to time and the aircurrent ceased and this tact was taken advantage of to evacuate the dirtand trash from the cleaner, the dirt being pushed by a screw conveyerinto, a hanging canvas cylin- 1 der held closed at the bottom byatmospheric `nessure so lone' as the suction was etiective l C in thecleaner but opening and dropping its contents When the suction wasbroken. ln

Amy new cleaner-aerator the suction .is confast as additional Adirt isforced into the cylinder at its inner Yend by the screv7 5. The plug otdirt contained in the cylinder during operations prevents the entranceof air.

l claim:

l. rlhe cotton cleaner above described, made up of an air-tight casing;a screen chamber Within the casing; beater arms mounted `tor rotationabout the longitudinal axis ct the screen chamber andcasing; an air andcotton inlet opening, at one end, through the casing side Wall to theinterior of the screen chamber, directed tangentially to the circularpath ot' the `beater arms and in the direction ot the rotation thereof;an air and cotton exit opening, at the other end from` the interior otthe screen chamber, through the casing side Wall; a fan to create an aircurrent through the tangential inlet opening and through the screenchamber to the exit, substantially as shown and described. l l

2. rlhe cotton cleaner above described, made up ot an air-tight casingya screen chamber Within the casing; beater arms mounted Jtor rotationabout the longitudinal axis of the screen chamber and casing; an air andcotton inlet opening, at one end, through the casing side Wall to theinterior ot the screen clramber, directed tangentially to the circularpath of the beater arms and in the direction oi' rotation thereof; anair and cotton exit opening trom the interior o1 the screen chamber,through the casing side Wall. y

Signed at Atlanta, Georgia, this seventh day of November, i922.

NnLsoN n. nemer

